We went to Fay, or at least started that way. We made it to Johnson and then we heard that terrible sound that know one wants to hear....thump,thump,thump....a dreaded flat tire. We were right by the railroad tracks in Johnson, in the sun, in my Mom's van with no tools. At least there was a shade tree near by for my Mom and the kids to sit. The ground was so hot, Robert couldn't even touch anything and where do you think the jack is stored in the van...go ahead guess....under the hood, yea that's right and it was so hot he couldn't hardly touch it and we had no gloves. We had wet wipes, old ones from probably 1995 when she bought the van. Oh did I mention that the tires she informed us were the same ones from 1995 when her and Dad bought the van new. Yea, you read right, she said they had one flat tire in July 1995 right after they got it when Kassie was a baby. We didn't even know if the spare would still have air in it. Anyway to cont. with the story, my Dad had put running boards on the van when they bought it and if you haven't ever tried to put a jack under them.....DON'T! So while we are trying to figure out what to do, we watched car after car, including two police cars drive by us and never stop to ask if we need help. Finally a nice man on a motorcycle of all things stops to see if Robert needs help. He was able to hold the jack for Robert so he could finally get it to go up and we got if changed. We had already called my brother to come and help and they were on the way and they turned around when he finally got it changed. Then we went to Sears and had 4 new tires put on the van. Robert had been telling Mom for awhile now that she needed new tires but money always is an issue, anyway she didn't have much choice today.
So I mentioned they come in 3..bad things I mean...Tyler had asked me if he could have a $5 bill today and I gave him one but said I needed it back....why don't I ever learn??? Anyway we didn't get home with the $5 just a $1 bill. I guess someone in a store got a $5 bill and was happy to get it. I hope they needed it more than us.
The old saying bad things come in 3, I heard it all my life, Robert said he had never heard it before, I wonder if he is a believer now. So I am hoping the other one in the part 3 is the other night our neighbors Kirk and Lori had a flat tire and I ran into them and stopped to see if they needed help and so maybe I can borrow that one and we won't have another mishap, what do you all think???
So I told my Mom that I have been hearing about paying people back...meaning with good things, like doing something good for someone else and someone will do something for you and so forth, so maybe that is why that nice man stopped to help today because I stopped to help a neighbor in need....I hope so and I am going to cling to that and try to remember that and teach my kids that....that is my life lesson for today.
By the way, the man that stopped I am ashamed to say I didn't even ask his name, but anyway I will do better next time....he commented that he couldn' believe that no one stopped to help us...he said " This isn't California people, it's Arkansas" no offense if anyone is from California. So that is my story and I'm sticking to it!!! Bye for now
